Will smcfancontrol be enough?

[thermodynamic]

I'm highly tempted to buy a 15" MBP ($2199) despite the bad news of overheating complaints.

It's been a few weeks since the overheating issue was made. Maybe new MBPs being made and shipped won't have as much thermal grease applied to the chips...?

Even then, if I set the fans to a higher RPM, use a laptop stand with cooling fans, and then work with some heavy duty photoshop work or rendering, with 10.6.7 fixing a software glitch (and hopefully not quietly underclocking the GPU too much as a workaround), should I be okay temperature-wise? (Anything to keep the thing running cool as I want this machine to last 3~5 years and excess heat will lower its lifespan.)

I wish this was a non-issue, but buying this model - even with warranty (Best Buy) - has me slightly worried. I have read Apple takes care of its customers in the past, which is great, but still.

If I can't get the new model to lock up, I'll be happy to put my mid-2009 17" 2.8GHZ model on ebay.

Thx!

 

[GGJstudios]

I'm highly tempted to buy a 15" MBP ($2199) despite the bad news of overheating complaints.

The "overheating" complaints are primarily by those who aren't used to the normally high temps that the MBP generates. Very few MBPs truly overheat. If they do (at around 105C/221F), they're designed to automatically shut down, to prevent damage. All the "overheating" talk is just hype. You don't even need fan control, as Macs manage their fans just fine without the need for 3rd party apps or user intervention.

Buy it and enjoy it!

 

[zwodubber]

The "overheating" complaints are primarily by those who aren't used to the normally high temps that the MBP generates. Very few MBPs truly overheat. If they do (at around 105C/221F), they're designed to automatically shut down, to prevent damage. All the "overheating" talk is just hype. You don't even need fan control, as Macs manage their fans just fine without the need for 3rd party apps or user intervention.

Buy it and enjoy it!

Now I see what you mean about answering a lot of heat questions, you should save this so you can just copy/paste in all the threads

Back to OP, don't let the heat be an issue. As GGJ said most people aren't used to the extra heat from an MBP but there are safety mechanisms built in to prevent catastrophic meltdown

 

[MaxMike]

I got my MacBook Pro (2.2 i7) on the release day and I never had any huge problems with overheating. Yes, it will get hot, but don't forget that since the casing is aluminum it also acts like a giant heatsink, moving heat away from the components. And personally, the only real time it gets to the point of the fans on high speed is when I'm video encoding. But that's >90% CPU usage so it's expected. And speaking for myself, I have a Speck SeeThru Satin on my computer so that probably traps in some more heat too. Either way, my Mac never shut down on me so I know it was within its computing limits.